Machine for manufacturing articles of folded plasterboard

ABSTRACT

A machine for manufacturing &#39;&#39;&#39;&#39;sleuters&#39;&#39;&#39;&#39; or other articles of folded plasterboard is described. Sleuters are employed as spacers or risers between stacks of plasterboard or other sheet material and have the advantage that they do not physically mark or discolor such plasterboard, as conventional wooden sleuters sometimes do. Plasterboard remnants are cut to a standard length, and then conveyed intermittently between work stations where they are scored to provide fold lines, folded into two pleated members while simultaneously breaking such members apart from each other, and then stapled. The folding apparatus includes upper and lower folding arms which are moved toward the plasterboard and pivoted to fold and break such board into the two pleated members. The pleated plasterboard members are transmitted from the folding section through a guide to compress them while their layers are stapled together to form the completed sleuter. The stapled sleuters are fed to a transfer means which turns them on one side and slides them into an accumulator to provide a row of sleuters. A complete row of sleuters is dropped onto a stacking mechanism that rotates 90* between each row.

United States Patent Petermann et al.

[4 1 May 27, 1975 4] MACHINE FOR MANUFACTURING ARTICLES OF FOLDEDPLASTERBOARD [75] Inventors: James P. Petermann, Tigard;

William E. Dolinar; Stanley V. Ehrlich, both of Portland, all of Oreg.

[73] Assignee: Georgia-Pacific Corporation,

Portland, Oreg.

[22] Filed: Apr. 10, 1974 [21] Appl. No.: 459,674

Primary ExaminerGranville Y. Custer, Jr. Attorney, Agent, orFirm-Klarquist, Sparkman, Campbell Leigh, Hall & Whinston [57] ABSTRACTA machine for manufacturing sleuters or other articles of foldedplasterboard is described. Slcuters are employed as spacers or risersbetween stacks of plasterboard or other sheet material and have theadvantage that they do not physically mark or discolor suchplasterboard, as conventional wooden sleuters sometimes do. Plasterboardremnants are cut to a standard length, and then conveyed intermittentlybetween work stations where they are scored to provide fold lines,folded into two pleated members while simultaneously breaking suchmembers apart from each other, and then stapled. The folding apparatusincludes upper and lower folding arms which are moved toward theplasterboard and pivoted to fold and break such board into the twopleated members. The pleated plasterboard members are transmitted fromthe folding section through a guide to compress them while their layersare stapled together to form the completed sleuter. The stapled sleutersare fed to a transfer means which turns them on one side and slides theminto an accumulator to provide a row of sleuters. A complete row ofsleuters is dropped onto a stacking mechanism that rotates 90 betweeneach row.

6 Claims, 8 Drawing Figures PMENIEB MAY 2 7 I875 SHEET mm: :2 mm;

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Pmminm fi 3,885,725

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FIG. 7

MACHINE FOR MANUFACTURING ARTICLES OF FOLDED PLASTERBOARD BACKGROUND OFTHE INVENTION The subject matter of the present invention relatesgenerally to the manufacture of articles of folded sheet material, andin particular to machines for manufacturing sleuters or other articlesof folded plasterboard. The machine of the present invention makes loadspacers or sleuters from plasterboard remnants which are cut into astandard length, scored along fold lines, and transmitted into a foldingapparatus which simulta neously folds and breaks the plasterboard memberinto two separate members having accordian-like pleats. The pleatedmembers are then compressed and stapled to form the completed sleuters.Such sleuters are used as spacers or risers beneath stacks of sheetmaterial, such as gypsum board, for shipping purposes or for storage.The sleuters enable the insertion of the forklifts of lift trucksbeneath the stack of sheet material for movementt thereof and can beused as spacers between stacks sorted into different sized stacks.

Sleuters of folded gypsum boards have the advantage that they do notdiscolor or physically mark the surface of the plasterboard or othersheet material stacked thereon, and therefore have an advantage overconventional sleuters of wood in this regard. In addition, the machineof the present invention enablesplasterboard remnants to be made intocommercial articles and thereby greatly reduces waste in plantsmanufacturing gypsum board sheets.

It has been proposed to fold plasterboard and other sheet material bycutting or scoring it in lines on one side or both sides, as shown inU.S. Pat. No. 2,529,210 of Butler and U.S. Pat. No. 3,646,418 of Stemset a1. Heretofore, folding has been accomplished by moving upper andlower folding members or blades toward each other to provide pleats in acontinuous web of sheet material, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,194,344 ofWikander et al, and U.S. Pat. No. 2,670,026 of Unger. However, in theseprior apparatus, the folding members or blades are fixed, not pivoted ormoved laterally to compress the folds together and do not break thesheet material into two separate members, in the manner of the presentinvention.

Previous attempts to fold plasterboard as it was moved continuously wereunsuccessful due to breakage and resulting jamb-ups. These problems havebeen overcome in the present invention by providing a conveyor meanswhich moves the plasterboard intermittently between the work stationsperforming the operations of cutting, scoring, folding and breaking, andstapling. This intermittent movement is provided by a timer operating aclutch connected between the motor shaft and the drive shaft of theconveyor.

The amount of gypsum dust produced during the scoring operation isgreatly reduced by operating saw blades providing such scoring at thesame speed as the conveyor chain. The plasterboard is accuratelypositioned at each of the operating stations by stop surfaces on lugsattached to the conveyor chain and the same lugs also act as drive meansfor moving the plasterboard from one work station to another.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION One object of the present invention is toprovide an improved apparatus for folding sheet material which operatesin a simple, trouble-free manner.

Another object of the invention is to provide such a folding apparatuswhich also breaks the sheet material into two separate members duringfolding by pivoting upper and lower folding arms while they are movedtoward such sheet material.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a machine formanufacturing articles of folded sheet material, such as plasterboard,including an automatic conveyor means which intermittently moves theplasterboard members between the work stations of the machine in orderto reduce breakage and jamb-ups.

An additional object of the invention is to provide a sleutermanufacturing machine which employs the above-mentioned foldingapparatus.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide such amachine which automatically cuts the sheet material into members ofstandard lengths and then scores the upper and lower surfaces of suchmember along fold lines before transmitting them to the foldingapparatus.

A still further object of the invention is to provide such a machinewhich automatically fastens the folded plasterboard members together bystapling to form the completed sleuters.

Another object of the invention is to provide such a machine whichstacks the completed sleuters in rows, and rotates the stack ninetydegrees before adding the next row so that it is arrangedperpendicular-to the preceding row for more stable storage.

' BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS Other objects and advantages of thepresent invention will be apparent from the following detaileddescription of a preferred embodiment thereof and from the attacheddrawings of which: I

FIG. 1 is a plan view of the sleuter manufacturing machine of theinvention;

FIG. 2 is a side elevation view of the machine of FIG.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged vertical section view taken along the line 3-3 ofFIG. 1 showing the folding apparatus;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged vertical section view taken along the line 4-4 ofFIG. 1 showing the stapling apparatus;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged horizontal section view taken along the line 55 ofFIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is an enlarged vertical section view taken along the line 6-6 ofFIG. 1 showing the transfer apparatus;

FIG. 7 is an enlarged horizontal section view taken along the line 7-7of FIG. 1 showing the accumulator and stacking apparatus; and

FIG. 8 is an enlarged horizontal section view taken along the line 88 ofFIG. 1 showing the conveyor chain and associated lug.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a machinefor manufacturing sleuters or other articles of folded plasterboard inaccordance with the present invention includes a conveyor table 10having a plurality of rollers 12 across which gypsum plasterboardremnants are manually fed to a cutter means 14. The cutter means 114includes a vertically movable cutter blade 16 which cuts theplasterboard remnants into plasterboard members 17 of a predeterminedlength when the leading edge of such members engages stop surfaces; onthe from of lugs attached to two conveyor chains 20 located on theopposite side of the cutter from the conveyor table. The conveyor chains20 both engage sprockets provided on a shaft 22 at the input end of theconveyor chain and engage other sprockets on a drive shaft 24 providedat the output end of the conveyor chain.

The conveyor chain 20 transmits the plasterboard members 17 through ascoring apparatus 26. The scoring apparatus 26 includes two sets ofcircular saw blades 28 and 30, respectively, positioned above and belowthe plasterboard members 17 as they are fed through the scoringapparatus. The lower saw blades 30 are mounted on a common shaft 32which is driven by the coupling chain 34 connected to a sprocket on theconveyor drive shaft 24 so that the lower saw blades 30 are driven atthe same speed as the conveyor chain 20. The upper saw blades 28 areprovided on an idler shaft 36 which is unconnected to the conveyorchain. Thus, the upper saw blades 28 are rotated by engagement with theupper surface of the plasterboard members 17 as they pass between thetwo sets of blades.

The upper saw blades 28 and the lower saw blades 30 are spaced laterallyapart approximately four inches to provide longitudinal score lines onthe upper and lower surfaces of the plasterboard member 17 in analternating manner. Thus, two adjacent score lines on the upper surfaceare separated by a distance of eight inches and a score line on thelower surface is positioned midway between such two upper score lines toenable folding in a manner hereafter discussed. In addition, there aretwo aligned score lines extending longitudinally on opposite sides ofthe plasterboard member 17 in the middle in order to enable suchplasterboard member to be broken into two separate members of equalwidth by a folding apparatus 38 as described hereafter and shown in FIG.3.

A second pair of conveyor chains 40 is provided for transmitting thescored plasterboard members through the folding means 38. Each of thesecond conveyor chains 40 is actually a double conveyor chain mounted atits input end on a pair of sprockets attached to the shaft 24 and onanother pair of sprockets attached to a main drive shaft 42 at itsoutput end. The main drive shaft 42 is connected to the output shaft ofa suitable electric motor 441 by a coupling chain 46, which provides thepower for both conveyor chains 40 and 20. Electric motor 44 includes aclutch operated by a mechanical timer 47 to provide intermittentmovement to the conveyor chains Ztl and 46 so that the plasterboardmembers I7 are moved intermittently from the cutter means 12 to thescoring means 26 and then from the scoring means to the folding means38, as wellas from such folding means to a stapling means 438. Thisintermittent movement reduces breakage and prevents jambing. Gypsum dustis also reduced by the previously described scoring operation of the sawblades 26 and 36, rather than using them as saws As shown in FIG. 3, thefolding apparatus 38 includes four upper arms 50 which are mounted intwo pairs for pivotal movement on bearings 52. The upper ends of thearms 50 are each connected to the piston rods of pneumatic cylinders 54which cause the arms of each pair of upper arms 50 to rotate toward eachother for folding and to rotate away from each other after the foldedarticles or sleuters are removed. In addition, the folding meansincludes two sets of three lower arms including two freely pivotingouter arms 56 and a nonpivoting middle arm 58. The lower arms aremounted on a carriage 60 which is raised and lowered by rotation of acrankshaft 62 whose opposite ends are connected to such carriage bycrank arms 64. The crankshaft 62 is coupled to a drive shaft 66 byconnector chains 68, and such drive shaft is driven by an electric motor70. The output shaft of motor 70 is coupled through a clutch to thedrive shaft 66 by another coupling chain 72 and associated sprocketsprovided on such shafts. The clutch of motor 70 is operated by the timer47 in synchronism with the intermittent movement of the conveyor chain40. As a result of rotation of the crank shaft 62, the carriage 60 movesvertically up and down in the direction of the double headed arrow 74-in synchronism with the pivoting of the upper arms 56 by cylinders 54 inorder to fold the plasterboard member 17 and break it into a pair ofpleated members 17'. Thus, the plasterboard is broken apart into twoseparate members along the pair of aligned score lines at thelongitudinal center of such board underneath a fixed anvil member 74, ina manner hereafter described.

The upper arms 50 are provided with blade portions 76 while the lowerarms 56 and 58 are provided with similar blade portions 78 and 80 whichengage the plasterboard and fold it along the score lines. Upon upwardmovement of the carriage, each of the blades 76, 78 and 80 engages theplasterboard 17 at a position on the opposite side of such board fromand aligned with one of the longitudinal score lines so that continudupward movement of the carriage causes the plasterboard to fold alongsuch score lines. However, in the middle of the plasterboard beneath theanvil 74 and above a corresponding support plate 82, the plasterboardbreaks in half because there are two aligned score lines on oppositesides of the plasterboard extending along its center in this area. Thus,as a result of the upward movement of the carriage 60 and the inwardpivoting of the upper arms 59 by the cylinders 54, the flat plasterboard17 held at its sides in a pair of guides 84 is broken into twoplasterboard members I7 which are folded into loosely pleated members asshown in FIG. 3. It should be noted that in their raised position thelower arms 56 are pivoted inwardly by the pleated members 17 when theyare folded by the upper arms 56. Also, the blades 86 on the intermediatearms 58 pass between the two conveyor chains forming each doubleconveyor chain at) supporting the plasterboard I7 prior to folding, suchplasterboard member being held in a proper longitudinal position by lugs86 which act as stops in a similar manner to lugs 18 on the conveyorchains 20 of FIG. I.

As shown in FIG. 8, the leftend surface of the lugs 18 on the firstconveyor chains 20, in the position 38', shown in phantom lines, engagesthe front edge of the plasterboard I7 and acts as a stop while suchplasterboard is being cut to a predetermined length by the cutter means14. After cutting, the lug l8 and the chain 26 move forward into theposition shown in solid lines where its right end surface engages therear edge of the previously cut plasterboard member 17 and acts as adriving element. It should be noted that the plasterboard members aremanually moved from the cutting apparatus 14 onto the conveyor chains 20by movement of the next successive plasterboard remnant along theconveyor table into the cutter. However, this could also be doneautomatically. A similar operation of the lugs 86 on the second conveyorchain 40 properly positions the plasterbord members in the foldingapparatus 38 and the fastening apparatus 48.

After folding the plasterboard members into compact pleated members 17'by further inward movement of the upper arms 50 in FIG. 3, such pleatedmembers are moved by the conveyor chains 40 and associated lugs 86 fromthe folding apparatus 38 into the fastening apparatus 48 whichpreferably includes stapling means. Once this is accomplished, thefreely pivoting upper folding arms 50 are pivoted back outward by thecylinders 54 and the lower folding arms 56 are ccaused to pivotoutwardly into their normal position by means of counter weights 88attached by support shafts 90 to the bottom ends of the arms 50 whichrotate on bearings 92.

As shown in FIG. 4, the fastening apparatus 48 includes a plurality ofpneumatically operated staplers 94 which are mounted on two pairs ofpressure plates 96 and 98, provided on opposite sides of the pleatedplasterboard members 17' for injecting staples into the opposite sidesthereof in order to staple adjacent layers of the members together. Theouter pressure plate 96 is fixed while the inner pressure plate 98 isfree to pivot about a hinge 100 at its upper edge. The pivoted pressureplate 98 is urged toward the fixed pressure plate 96 by a counterweight102 adjustably mounted on a support arm 104 attached to the bottom edgeof the pivoted pressure plate. The input ends of the pressure plates 96and 98 are flared to provide end portion 106 and end portion 108,respectively, as shown in FIG. 1. These flared input ends guide thepleated member 17' from the folding apparatus 38 into the fasteningapparatus 48 where it is further folded into a tightly compressed bundleprior to stapling. Stapling is accomplished by feeding compressed airthrough solenoid actuated valves (not shown) into inlet tubes 110 of thestaplers. Staples are fed through vertical magazines 112 into thestaplers in a conventional manner.

After stapling, the completed sleuters, or spacer members 17", are fedfrom the fastening apparatus 48 onto a transfer apparatus 114 and fromthere onto an accumulator and stacking apparatus 116 in a mannerhereafter described. As shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 5, when the sleuters17" reach the end of the second conveyor chain 40, a pair of pivoted dogmembers 118 engage the rear end of each sleuter and push it onto thetransfer apparatus. Thus, a hydraulic cylinder 120 is provided so thatits piston drives a plunger 122 which engages the rear end of the dog118 to cause it to move on a carrier member 124 into the dashed lineposition 118. The dog is pivotably attached to the carrier member 124 atpivot point 126 and its rear end engages a stop pin 127. As a result,the sleuters slide into a pair of L-shaped trays 128 in the transferapparatus which are pivotally mounted on support brackets by pivots 130,as shown in FIG. 6. The trays 128 are pivoted into the dashed-lineposition 128 by a cylinder 132 whose piston rod is directly connected toone tray and is coupled by a coupling rod 134 to the other tray. Thistips the sleuters from their vertical stapled position with the pleatedlayers extending vertically to a horizontal transfer position with theirpleated layers extending horizontally and resting on a pair of transferguides 136. Then, the sleuters are moved by a pair of second cylinders138 to the right across the transfer guides 136 onto the accumulator andstacking apparatus 116, as shown by the dashed line position 139 of thepiston rod of cylinder 138.

The accumulator and stacking means 116 includes an accumulator device140 for accumulating an entire row of sleuters 17 before dropping themonto the top of the stack. The accumulator has a pair of movable supportplates 142 whose inner edges overlap the stack and support the ends ofthe sleuters 17" in position above the stack and which move in thedirection of arrow 143. to drop such sleuters onto the stack. Eachaccumulator plate 142 is pivotally supported by links 144 and 145 onsupport member 147 and coupled by link 144 to the piston rods of a pairof actuating cylinders 146. Cylinders 146 cause links 144 and 145 topivot counterclockwise about fixed pivots 148 which retracts theaccumulator plates 142 in direction 143 into the dashed line position142' and causes the row of sleuters 17" to drop onto the top of thestack, as shown in FIG. 7 by arrow 150. It should be noted that thecylinders 146 are operated by limit switches when the row of sleuters17" is filled so that the first sleuter reaches the end of theaccumulator indicating a full row.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the stacking means 116 includes a turntable152 which is mounted for rotation back and forth through an arc of 90upon actuation of a double acting cylinder 154. Thus, turntable 152resiliently supports a lift truck pallet 156 on which the sleuters 17"are stacked, urging it upward and rotating back and forth through 90after each row of sleuters 17" is dropped onto the stack by theaccumulator 140. As a result, alternate rows of sleuters are displacedninety degrees to provide a crisscrossing of rows which increases thestability of the stack. This reciprocating movement of the turntable 152is shown by the double headed arrow 158 in FIG. 1.

It will be obvious to those having ordinary skill in the art that manychanges can be made in the details of the preferred embodiment of theinvention without departing from the spirit of the invention. Therefore,the scope of the invention should only be determined by the followingclaims.

We claim:

1. A machine for manufacturing articles of folded plasterboard,comprising:

cutter means for cutting plasterboards to a standard length;

scoring means for scoring said boards on the opposite sides thereof toprovide a plurality of spaced score lines extending partially throughthe thickness of said boards;

folding means for folding each of said boards along said score lines toprovide a folded member having a plurality of pleats formed by layers ofgypsum board material fastening means for fastening together the layersof each folded member to form said articles; and automatic conveyormeans for intermittently conveying said boards between said cuttermeans, said scoring means, said folding means and said fastening means.

2. A machine in accordance with claim 1 in which the scoring means formsscore lines on the plasterboard which includes a pair of score linesaligned with each other on opposite sides of said board, and the foldingmeans also breaks the board into two separate board members along saidpair of aligned score lines.

3. A machine in accordance with claim 1 in which the fastening means isa stapling means which fastens the layers of the folded member togetherwith staples inserted into the opposite side of said folded member.

4. A machine in accordance with claim 1 in which the folding meansincludes a plurality of upper arms and a plurality of lower arms onopposite sides of the plasterboard, means for moving the upper and lowerarms toward and away from each other, and means for pivoting at leastsome of said arms to fold the plasterboard into a pleated member.

5. A machine in accordance with claim 1 in which the conveyor meansincludes conveyor chains having lugs thereon which include a stopportion for stopping the plasterboards when they are cut by the cuttermeans and a drive portion for driving said boards to the scoring meansand the folding means.

6. A machine in accordance with claim 1 which also includes a stackingmeans for accumulating the folded and fastened members to form ahorizontal row of said members and for stacking said row on top of aprevious row of said members after rotating said previous rowapproximately ninety degrees in a horizontal direction. l=

1. A machine for manufacturing articles of folded plasterboard,comprising: cutter means for cutting plasterboards to a standard length;scoring means for scoring said boards on the opposite sides thereof toprovide a plurality of spaced score lines extending partially throughthe thickness of said boards; folding means for folding each of saidboards along said score lines to provide a folded member having aplurality of pleats formed by layers of gypsum board material fasteningmeans for fastening together the layers of each folded member to formsaid articles; and automatic conveyor means for intermittently conveyingsaid boards between said cutter means, said scoring means, said foldingmeans and said fastening means.
 2. A machine in accordance with claim 1in which the scoring means forms score lines on the plasterboard whichincludes a pair of score lines aligned with each other on opposite sidesof said board, and the folding means also breaks the board into twoseparate board members along said pair of aligned score lines.
 3. Amachine in accordance with claim 1 in which the fastening means is astapling means which fastens the layers of the folded member togetherwith staples inserted into the opposite side of said folded member.
 4. Amachine in accordance with claim 1 in which the folding means includes aplurality of upper arms and a plurality of lower arms on opposite sidesof the plasterboard, means for moving the upper and lower arms towardand away from each other, and means for pivoting at least some of saidarms to fold the plasterboard into a pleated member.
 5. A machine inaccordance with claim 1 in which the conveyor means includes conveyorchains having lugs thereon which include a stop portion for stopping theplasterboards when they are cut by the cutter means and a drive portionfor driving said boards to the scoring means and the folding means.
 6. Amachine in accordance with claim 1 which also includes a stacking meansfor accumulating the folded and fastened members to form a horizontalrow of said members and for stacking said row on top of a previous rowof said members after rotating said previous row approximately ninetydegrees in a horizontal direction.